Disintegrating and feeding means for snow blowers



DISINTEGRATING AND FEEDING MEANS FOR SNOW BLOWERS Filed Dec. 29, 1958 A. LAMY July 3, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A. LAMY July 3, 1962 DISINTEGRATING AND FEEDING MEANS FOR SNOW BLOWERS Filed Dc. 29, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 fiV/ZZZI' v flrmaizd Jar/p1 MLQ) 2 W United States The present invention relates to snow blowers and more particularly to an improved construction of the means for engaging and disintegrating the snow and feeding the same to the rotary impeller which discharges the snow through a chute.

Known snow removers have a snow collecting casing provided with rotating screws arranged transverse to the direction of movement of the snow remover and provided with helicoidal continuous blades for engaging the snow and feeding the same laterally of the casing towards the mouth of a rotary impeller which discharges the snow through a chute.

An efiicient snow remover must be capable of coping not only with dry powdered snow but also with wet and compact snow, ice and even hard objects which may be in the snow such as stones, and the like; thus a snow remover, in order to be eflicient in practice, must have disintegrating means which will break up any ice blocks or compact wet snow before the same is fed to the impeller whereby jamming and/or breaking of the impeller may be prevented.

Another requisite of an efiicient snow remover is that it must have means to prevent entry of large size hard objects such as stones, pipes and the like into the im peller.

It is therefore the general object of the present invention to provide means in a snow remover which will disintegrate the snow and ice into small pieces before said snow or ice reaches the impeller whereby jamming of the impeller is completely prevented.

Another important object of the present invention is the provision of such disintegrating means which also act as feeding means for feeding the snow transversely of the remover casing towards the impeller.

Yet another important object of the present invention is the provision of snow disintegrating and feeding means of the character described which are so arranged as to completely block entry of relatively large size hard articles such as stones and which positively prevent the same from reaching the impeller and breaking the same.

The present invention is characterized by the fact that the usual snow feeding screws having a continuous helicoidal blade are replaced by a plurality of spaced blades having a front or leading snow slicing edge forming snow disintegrating means, some of said blades having a sector shape with a trailing portion inclined towards the mouth of the impeller so as to feed snow towards said impeller, so as to form combined disintegrating and feeding means.

Another main characteristic of the present invention resides in the fact that at least some of said sector shaped blades are provided at their leading snow slicing edge with hammer like bodies of relatively heavy mass which exert a hammering action on hard objects such as snow pieces, bricks and the like to disintegratethe same.

In accordance with another characteristic of the present invention, the sector shape blades are conveniently sufliciently close to each other to prevent the passage of hard objects of relatively large dimensions.

The foregoing will become more apparent during the following disclosure and by referring to the drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front perspective View of the snow reatent mover proper showing the chute and truck to which said remover is attached in dot and dash lines;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of a removable tooth or hammer;

FIGURE 3 is a front elevation of the snow remover casing and snow engaging, disintegrating and feeding means of the present invention;

FIGURE 4 is a partial perspective view of two central snow slicing blades and attached hammers;

FIGURE 5 is an elevation of part of the upper snow engaging and conveying assembly;

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of the assembly of FIGURE 5;

FIGURES 7 and 8 are schematic side elevations of the snow remover showing how a stone or other hard similar objects is avoided by the snow remover.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings in which like reference characters indicate like elements throughout, reference numeral 1 indicates a casing of generally rectangular shape which has a back wall and is open at the front, and which is disposed in front of a prime mover such as a truck or the like to be pushed thereby. The casing 1 serves as a support or frame for two horizontal axles 2 which are disposed for rotation about axes transverse to the direction of movement of the snow remover and which extend in front of a central circular mouth 3 of the housing of a rotary impeller (not shown) adapted to eject the snow through the orientable chute 4 which is adapted to discharge the snow either onto the side of the road or into the box of a truck or the like.

The axles or shafts 2 are positively driven by any suitable power means mounted on the casing 1 itself or through a power take-off from the truck, these means are not shown.

Instead of providing a continuous helical screw on each shaft 2 with the two half sections of the shaft having a screw portion of opposed pitch in order to laterally displace the snow and feed it to the central mouth 3, the

shafts of the present invention are provided with elongated blades 5 and .sector shaped blades 6. The blades 5 form arms with substantially parallel edges and are radially outwardly projecting from the central part of each shaft 2, that is the part of said shafts disposed substantially opposite mouth 3 of the rotary impeller while the blades 6 are mounted on those parts of the shafts which are disposed laterally with respect to said mouth. The blades 5 are at substantially right angles to each other as shown in FIGURE 6. Each blade 5 has a leading or front edge forming means for engaging, slicing and disintegrating the snow, ice or the like. Although, not essential, the blades 5 may have a certain pitch with the shaft 2 to direct the snow towards the center of mouth 3. The blades 5 are sufficiently close together along the shafts 1 2 in order to provide a maximum of snow slicing edges.

The blades 6 are constituted by sector shaped plates extending through more than one quarter of a circle and disposed substantially perpendicular to the shaft 2. The trailing part of each blade 6 with respect to the direction of rotation, is inclined longitudinally along the shaft in the direction of the mouth 3, thus the sector shaped blades 6 are inclined in opposite directions at each end portion of the casing 1 in order to direct the snow towards impeller opening 3. The trailing edge of each blade 6 is substantially aligned transversely of shaft 2 with the leading edge of the next blade nearer the impeller opening 3 and said sector shaped blades 6 are alternately arranged at above half a turn apart around the shaft 2 in order to form a screw but with the thread interrupted. Thus, this construction has the advantage of avoiding the compacting of the snow especially wet snow, which compacting would result in a solid snow mass engaging the impeller of the snow remover and completely jamming the same as it frequently happens in snow removers in which screws with a continuous thread is used. The leading edge of each blade 6 is straight and radially directed with respect to shaft 2 and forms ice and snow slicing and disintegrating means.

In accordance with the present invention the blades 5 and 6 of the lower shaft 2 are further provided at their radially external end portion, at the front edges of the same, with a tooth or hammer 7, one of which is illustrated in FIGURE 2. Each tooth 7 consists of a solid mass of metal forming a generally elongated body of substantially rectangular cross section which is secured to blade 6 with one side in contact with a face of the blades so as to have a front face which lies substantially in a radial plane passing through the shaft 2 and parallel to the leading edge of the associated blade, said front face being provided at its radially outer end with a leading inclined face forming an active acute edge 8 which is capable of engaging an obstacle such as an ice block, or similar objects and of breaking up the same into several smaller pieces. The acute edge 8 of tooth 7 projects radially outwardly from the radially outer edge of the associated blade 5 or 6. This prevents frictional energy losses between the snow or ice and said radially outer edge.

During rotation of the lower shaft 2, the hammers or teeth 7 move in close proximity with the lower curved portion of the housing 1. Thus, when the snow remover comes in engagement with a stone 9 or other similar objects, as indicated in FIGURES 7 and 8, this stone will be engaged by a tooth 7 and, if it is not broken, the stone will cause the complete lifting of the snow remover and the stone will pass underneath the casing 1, as shown in FIGURE 8.

In accordance with the present invention, the assembly of the two shafts 2 provided with the blades 5 and 6 and with teeth 7 on the lower shaft form disintegrating means for snow and ice and other obstacles in such a manner that only pieces of reduced dimensions will be permitted to engage the rotary impeller, such small particles being ,of such dimensions that they will never be able to damage vsaid impeller. On the other hand, if the obstacles met by the snow remover are of relatively large size and are too hard to be broken down, such as the stone 9 shown in FIGURE 7, these obstacles or objects will be engaged by the teeth 7 and will cause the passage of such objects underneath the casing 1.

The teeth 7 are removable for replacement when broken or worn out: they are provided on one side with a recess 10 and are bored with holes 11 for the threaded engagement of bolts 12 which serve to join these teeth 7 to the blades 5 and 6 of the lower shaft 2.

The snow remover of the present invention is used in a conventional manner and is characterized by the advantage that the blades 5 and 6 feed the snow laterally towards the central opening 3 and simultaneously serve as snow slicing and disintegrating means while the heavy teeth 7 serve as a hammer for breaking down ice blocks and the like into smaller pieces. removable when damaged.

The blades 5 and 6 are disposed in close relationship along the shafts 2 in order to reduce to a minimum the spacing between said blades and thus avoid the entry of big pieces between said blades.

While a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention has been illustrated and described, it is understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a snow remover, a front casing having a back wall and open at the front for receiving snow therein, said back wall having a central mouth for feeding the snow to a snow ejecting impeller, a horizontal rotatable shaft transversely arranged within said casing and in front of said mouth and having a first part disposed opposite said mouth, and other parts disposed laterally with respect to said mouth, radial elongated blades fixed to said first part of said shaft and sector shaped blades fixed to said other parts of said shaft, said sector shaped blades having a leading part with respect to the direction of rotation of said shaft disposed in a plane perpendicular to said shaft and having a trailing part inclined towards said month, said elongated and sector blades having a straight radial leading edge for slicing and disintegrating snow and other material, the trailing edge of said sector shaped blades being alined transversely of said shaft with the leading edge of the next blade nearer said mouth, and a hammer tooth fixed to the radially outer end of the leading portions of said elongated and sector shaped blades, each tooth consisting of an elongated solid body of rectangular cross section having a side face removably secured to and in contact with a face of the blade and having a front face lying in a radial plane passing through said shaft and parallel to the leading edge of the associated blade, the outer end portion of said front face being forwardly inclined to form a tapered end portion defining an acute The hammers 7 are edge radially outwardly projecting from the outer edge of the associated blade, and leading from the front face of said body.

2. In a snow remover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said side face of said hammer tooth is recessed for engagement with the face of said blade.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,732,883 'Fagan Oct. 22, 1929 2,144,316 Klauer Jan. 17, 1939 2,353,928 Piltz July 18, 1944 2,795,871 Moen June 18, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 454,349 Canada Jan. 25, 1949 818,810 Germany Oct. 29, 1951 479,828 Canada Jan. 1, 1952 720,686 Great Britain Dec. 22, 1954 

